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The WORLDWIDE UTE NEWS Club
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\\\ An Electronic Club Dealing Exclusively in Utility Signals ///
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SPECIAL TOPIC REPORT 95-1
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Info on SIDE CAR callword by tim@umcc.umich.edu (Tim Tyler)
Several months ago in a WUN posting, I mentioned that I had
figured out who/what/where callword SIDE CAR was, and that I'd post the
info to WUN shortly. I delayed doing so for a couple of reasons, but will
now follow through with my promise.
For at least a couple of years now, callword SIDE CAR has been
heard by HF monitoring enthusiasts on a variety of frequencies. Usually
the channels that SIDE CAR is heard on are thought or known to be
associated with NORAD (such as 9022/9023USB, a NORAD training channel)
and/or airborne warning & control (like 11214USB, a 552nd Airborne
Control Wing channel).
NORAD is of course the North American Aerospace Defense Command
-- the US DOD/Canadian Forces organization responsible for aerospace
surveillance, detection, warning, identification, tracking, and negation
of threats. Assets frequently used by NORAD include the Joint
Surveillance System, an FAA/DOD RADAR network, the Coastal RADAR System
sites on Canada's East & West Coast, as well as the Northern Warning
System in Northern Canada, space-based RADAR & infrared systems, and of
course E-3 AWACS aircraft. NORAD is headquartered at Peterson AFB in
Colorado, although their Cheyenne Mountain Complex (aka Cheyenne Mountain
Air Force Station), 15 buildings inside 3 separate chambers built 1400
feet inside a granite mountain near Colorado Springs is better known.
NORAD was formed in 1958 (until 1981, the A in NORAD stood for Air), and
the charter is up for renewal by the US & Canada in May of 1996.
Getting back specifically to station SIDE CAR, analyzing some of
their radio traffic easily led me to a couple of basic conclusions. The
most important one is that SIDE CAR is a Canadian Forces facility. This
is somewhat evident based on the speech & accent of the SIDE CAR
communicators. Nothing blatant like hearing them say "Take off, you
hoser!" or adding an "eh?" to each transmission, but pronunciation of a
few key words (such as "out"). Another lead is that most of the aircraft
I'd hear them control would be in Canadian airspace. Thirdly, they were
often heard on HF via a phone patch from Trenton Military.
Much of the
communications heard was with communicators and NORAD battlestaff aboard
USAF E-3 AWACS aircraft, and sometime with Canadian military frigates.
Specifically, a lot of it had to do with coordinating the Link-11
Tactical Data Link ("TADIL," often miss-reported in loggings as
"paddle"). TADILs such as the HF/UHF Link-11 and the Link-16 JTIDS (Joint
Tactical Information Distribution System) allow various platforms to
share & extend RADAR & IFF images. A land-based facility might be
maintaining a TADIL with an AWACS via HF, and that AWACS aircraft might
be passing the sensor data on to fighter aircraft via Link-16, which is
secure/anti-jam. That way, the AWACS could be orbiting slightly outside
of the hostile area, while the fighter aircraft inside the hostile area
could be maintaining a "cold nose" (RADAR off) but still have full
RADAR/IFF data thanks to the AWACS...
Recently, SIDE CAR has been heard
communicating with ships, such as the Canadian Warship Terra Nova.
Again, most of the comms were voice coordination of a TADIL. This
Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) allows for anti-air warfare and
anti-surface warfare assets with TADIL net capability to extend their
surveillance and identification/negation capabilities beyond their own
line of sight, as well as allowing for some friendly platforms to
initiate emissions control (EMCON, basically radio-silence) mode while
continuing to have real or near-real time active sensor data within the
area of responsibility.
So far, the speculation about SIDE CAR focuses on NORAD and
Canada, so the next step was to investigate the Canadian segment of
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NORAD. North American Aerospace Defense Command is comprised of three
regions -- Contiguous United States (CONUS), Alaska, and Canada. The
Canadian NORAD Region, known as CNORADR or, in some official NORAD
documents, CANR, has the venue of all of Canada. Canada was divided into
two geographic sectors, East and West. The CANR East Sector was managed
by the 21st Aerospace Control & Warning Squadron, while the West CANR
Sector was under the control of the 51st AC&WS. Both sectors had
operations centers, called Sector Operations Control Centers (SOCCs,
pronounced "socks"). Both SOCCs were located in adjacent, underground
bunkers at the Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters & Control Complex,
Canadian Forces Base North Bay. CFB North Bay is located near the eastern
shore of Lake Nipissing in Ontario, although more accurately, the CFB is
located in the community of Hornell Heights. The two SOCCs would then
pass their data onto the CANR ROCC -- Region Operations Control Center
("rock"), who would then distribute data to other NORAD and Canadian
Forces units as necessary. The SOCCs & ROCC were collectively referred to
as the North Bay Underground Complex. A back-up facility was known to be
in existence at a facility in St. Margarets, New Brunswick, which
nominally operates a GEODDS electro-optical space surveillance system.
Notice that much of the above is written in the past-tense. The
reason for that is because in early 1994, CANR decided to consolidate
their two SOCCs into one -- ***the Canadian NORAD Region East/West Sector
Operations Control Center, static callword SIDE CAR!*** The SOCC & ROCC
are operated by the 21st Aerospace Control & Warning Squadron, while the
51st is now the 51st Aerospace Control & Warning (Training) Squadron,
responsible for training the personnel assigned to the SOCC & ROCC. Both
squadrons are part of the 22 Wing.
The differences between the SOCC & ROCC are somewhat confusing,
but basically, the SOCC has the surveillance & warning systems (the
"scope dope" people) as well as the command & control function of
directing forces to intercept unidentified aircraft, and giving "weapons
free" status (permission to fire upon) hostile targets. The SOCC shares
their data with the ROCC, and the CANR ROCC is a conduit for information
flow between the CANR SOCC and the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex, as
well as other NORAD and Canadian Forces assets, such as Canada's National
Defense Operations Center in Ottawa and the alternate Canadian Forces
national command center at Carp, Ontario.
Initially, SIDE CAR was always heard on HF via a Trenton Military
phone patch. Lately though, it seems like SIDE CAR is on HF directly.
Either that, or they're now using a dedicated link to Trenton's (or
another site) HF facilities, & thus somewhat 'bypassed the middleman' of
having the Trenton Military HF operator control the radio & phone link
for SIDE CAR. Either way, SIDE CAR should certainly have their own,
direct HF capability, albeit perhaps just as a back-up.
Additionally, we should be able to assume that the CANR SOCC (&
ROCC) has other callwords besides the static "SIDE CAR" that they would
use as an operational security measure during drills or wartime
operations. All of the US SOCCs have at least two static callwords in
routine use, one by the data operator(s) during voice coordination & the
other by the normal voice comms side of the house.
In January of 1994, I heard callword WIND SOCK on an HF channel
and was able to verify that the callword was an identifier for a CANR
unit at CFB North Bay. I haven't heard it used recently, and don't know
if it was just a tactical callword, or perhaps a call word for the old
CANR West SOCC.
BREWMASTER is another callword that clearly seemed to
be a CANR station, but I haven't heard BREWMASTER in many months.
Taking a look in my 'International Callsign Handbook' first
edition, by Gayle Van Horn, the listing for BREWMASTER is: "Unknown
location, USAF, TAC/EC-125" I'm not sure what an "EC-125" is, perhaps a
typo for an EC-135 (aircraft), in which case this isn't the same
BREWMASTER I used to hear on HF...
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In addition to the more traditional role of NORAD, both the U.S.
and Canadian governments have specifically made provisions for sharing
some intelligence derived from the detection and tracking nets with
agencies directly involved in the counternarcotic mission. CANR picked
up some counternarcotic responsibilities in 1989, a few years after the
US NORAD regions, when it was decided that illicit drugs were a serious
enough problem to warrant an involvement by the Canadian Forces. Like
the U.S. DOD, Canadian Forces are not allowed to have a *direct* role in
law enforcement, but with the thawing of the Cold War, the military is
becoming more active in indirect support to federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies via airborne & maritime detection & tracking systems.
My identification of callword SIDE CAR being the Canadian NORAD
Region East/West Sector Operations Control Center was based on simple
communications intelligence/traffic analysis and research on the CANR,
yet nothing I have indicated in this article actually verifies my
conclusion.
That is a deliberate effort on my part, because I'm not
willing to disclose at this time exactly how I did verify that SIDE CAR
is the CANR SOCC. Perhaps some of you will just trust me on it, but
better yet, keep listening, form some conclusions, and then try to
confirm/deny them!
A few weeks ago, I sent off a reception report for a SIDE CAR
intercept. Canadian Forces have never seemed too gung-ho at QSLing, so
I'm not holding my breath, but if I do get something back from CFB North
Bay, I'll let you know via WUN!
The closest thing to a QSL you might get would be to verify the
Transport Canada Flight Service Station located in North Bay, because it
is actually in the North Bay Underground Complex! FSS North Bay shares
part of SIDE CAR's underground facility in order to make it easier for
the
civillian FSS and military SOCC to exchange RADAR information, and the FSS
has been known to QSL.
Comments/corrections, etc can be emailed to: tim@ais.org or as a
back-up, to hooligan@aol.com
COMING SOON, an article about the NIGHTWATCH ## callsigns...
Copyright 1995, Tim Tyler

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